Depending on your thoughts about how a 2-0 game goes down, chances are you might’ve been far more entertained by the other news of the day yesterday. While Tim Thomas was busy shutting out a seemingly listless Lightning team, reports indicate that the Thrashers are indeed headed off to Winnipeg. All that means right now is that we’ve got a lot to sound off on in our Five Thoughts this morning.

1. We knew going into Game 3 that it wouldn’t be the up-and-down madness of goals and high-tempo play that we saw in Game 2 between Boston and Tampa Bay, but even last night’s game came off as way more of a letdown considering. Thankfully, Tim Thomas was there to save us and the game with some of his patented ridiculous saves. Tampa Bay really pushed play in the first period including a flurry of shots that saw Thomas come up especially huge.

After two games that saw Thomas both get hung out to dry at points and struggle with the Lightning attack, they got a prototypical Bruins-style game out of everyone and shut things down hardcore. If the Bruins play more games like that, they’ll do very well the rest of the way.

2. I don’t like to be critical of players before they’ve really shown they don’t have what it takes to keep up with things in the NHL, but I’m casting my worried gaze towards Victor Hedman. David Krejci’s goal in the first period happened when Hedman went to go help Brett Clark in the corner to go after the puck, leaving Krejci all alone in front of the net to score.

While Guy Boucher’s system calls for players to rotate around to make sure no one’s left alone like that, that’s a situation where Hedman absolutely cannot leave his man to blindly stick to the system. While Dominic Moore and Steve Downie offered no help there as they were both caught up in chasing Nathan Horton, all it took was one quick decision by Hedman to get after Milan Lucic to make things fall apart in an instant.

If Hedman can’t stick by a forward in front of the net that’s a bad matchup to make a forward race down to get on him. While Hedman’s eaten up big minutes through the playoffs, he lacks a physical element to his game and his offensive numbers don’t pop. Hmm…

3. If the Lightning weren’t worried about Patrice Bergeron coming back, after seeing him in Game 3 they should know better. While Bergeron didn’t factor in the scoring, it’s everything else he can do to help give the Bruins an edge that makes him a difficult matchup for Tampa. With Bergeron and Krejci out there to take faceoffs, the Bruins were able to control play right off the bat 67% of the time. Bergeron won 64% of his draws while Krejci won an astounding 72% of his.

With Tampa Bay unable to win draws anywhere on the ice, getting their offense started or getting their defense a break just didn’t happen. Guys like Vincent Lecavalier, Dominic Moore, and Steve Stamkos had better get working on those draws during practice before Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 (1:30 p.m. ET on NBC).

4. All right Winnipeg, it looks like you’re going to get an NHL team back. After all the hardship after the Jets moved to Phoenix, they’re being rewarded with the Thrashers as their situation in Atlanta appears ready to peter out without a local buyer to step in. Since this move seems all but done, let’s again reignite our stand about one thing: Call them the Jets.

I don’t care if it’s the Winnipeg Jets or the Manitoba Jets, but with the NHL apparently holding the rights to the Jets name, getting that name back and bringing back that name and the history of the team is the thing that makes most sense. There’s talk that True North wants to hang on to the Manitoba Moose name or may want to go with something else entirely different, but it was the memories and the history of the Jets going back to their days in the WHA that kept hope alive in the small Manitoba city of ever getting the NHL back. Now that it’s seemingly about to happen, here’s to hoping that Mark Chipman and David Thomson tell their ad wizards to stuff it and honor the city’s NHL past moving forward.

After all, which jerseys do you think are going to sell more once this is a done deal, Jets retro merchandise (which the NHL already sells a ton of) or whatever board room creation True North might come up with? There’s a reason why fans who gathered on the streets in Winnipeg last night after Stephen Brunt’s report of a deal being done started chanting “Go Jets Go” and it’s not because they were telling the Thrashers to hurry up and fly into town.

5. As for whether or not realignment happens this year or next, there doesn’t seem to be any good reason why it can’t happen this year. By all accounts the NHL prepared for this possibility by drawing up multiple schedules for next season factoring in whether or not the team would be in Atlanta or Winnipeg. According to Brunt, this is also a deal that the owners wrote off on depending on what the negotiated sale price was a few weeks ago.

Instead of having the Winnipeg team play a lame duck and horrible travel season in the Southeast Division and making everything harder for everyone in the Eastern Conference for a year, it just makes too much sense to have things prepared in advance and ready to roll since this was something the league knew might happen. It’s not as if the NHL doesn’t know who’s interested in coming to the Eastern Conference to take the Thrashers spot. Here’s to hoping the NHL did things the right way as opposed to their own way.

On Friday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that the Oilers captain will have a hearing for the hit to the head he delivered on Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy.

McDavid was only given a two-minute penalty on the play. Leddy missed a good deal of time in the game, but he eventually passed concussion protocol.

To make matters even worse for the Isles, McDavid ended up scoring the game-winner in overtime.

McDavid isn’t a dirty player by any means, but the league definitely has to do something here. Even though Leddy has his head down, McDavid can’t just make contact with his head in the manner in which he did.

Like a lot of other leagues, the NHL tends to favor their star players when it comes to handing out discipline, which is totally understandable, too. So this should be an interesting decision.

Losing their franchise player for any amount of time would be devastating to Edmonton’s slim playoff hopes. They’re currently six points behind the Minnesota Wild for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

After digging themselves into a significant hole early on this season, the Philadelphia Flyers found a way to get themselves back in the playoff conversation thanks to an outstanding last few weeks.

Thanks to some steady goaltending from Carter Hart and a more aggressive approach overall, the Flyers were able to rattle off 12 victories in 14 games between Jan. 14 – Feb. 17. That’s very impressive. But last night’s loss to Montreal combined with Carolina’s win over the Florida Panthers was a serious blow to their chances of playing meaningful games in the spring.

Philadelphia dropped a 5-2 decision to the first-place Lightning, who were playing their second game in two nights when they went head-to-head against the Flyers. But anytime should be able to stomach a loss to Tampa Bay. Thursday’s no-show in Montreal, however, is a different story.

From the start of the game to the very end, they were dominated by a quicker, hungrier and better Canadiens team. The Habs aren’t one of the elite teams in the conference, but they went into last night’s game sitting in the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Still, the Flyers couldn’t afford to drop those two points if they wanted to stay in the hunt.

For the second game in a row, Hart was pulled after playing just 10 minutes. This time, he got the hook after allowing a goal to Brendan Gallagher from a horrendous angle.

“We’re not in the position we’re in without him,” James van Riemsdyk said of Hart, per Philly.com. “He’s come in and does a tremendous job. There are games like that when there are going to be tough bounces. Again, he has nothing to hang his head on. He’s been unbelievable since he got here.”

So going into Saturday’s Stadium Series game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia finds themselves eight points behind their state rivals, who are in the third spot in the Metropolitan Division. A win at Lincoln Financial Field would bring them to within six points, but they’d still have Carolina and Columbus ahead of them.

Given the position they’re in, they have to absolutely unload Simmonds before Monday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline. Holding on to him and losing him for nothing at the end of the year isn’t an option. Although it’s hard not to blame the players for the way they played on Thursday night, they deserve credit for not giving up on the season when they easily could have done so in December, January and February.

For now though, it looks like they’ll have to start looking toward next season.

1. Brendan Gallagher, Montreal Canadiens. The Montreal Canadiens were dominant on Thursday night in a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, turning in one of their best overall performances of the season. At the center of it was Brendan Gallagher who recorded his first career hat trick to continue his great season. After his performance on Thursday he is now up to a team-leading 26 goals.

2. Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks. The Pittsburgh Penguins were no match for the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night who looked like the Stanley Cup contender that they are. Tomas Hertl was one of the big driving forces in the win as he scored a pair of power play goals, including one in the game’s first two minutes to set the tone for what would go on to be a decisive win. This game ended up getting very heated late.

3. Justin Williams, Carolina Hurricanes. The Carolina Hurricanes are back in a playoff spot after their come-from-behind win over the Florida Panthers. Captain Justin Williams had a huge game by scoring a pair of goals, including one off of his face. His second goal was a bit more conventional and went in the books as the game-winner. Nino Neiderreiter and Teuvo Teravainen also had multi-point games for the Hurricanes in the win.

More Notable Performances From Thursday

The Dallas Stars were 5-2 winners over the St. Louis Blues, snapping what had been an 11-game winning streak. Jamie Benn eclipsed the 20-goal mark in the win for the Stars.

The Nashville Predators reclaimed the top spot in the Central Division with a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings. You can read about it and what is ahead for the Predators here.

Big night for New Jersey Devils goalie Cory Schneider as he recorded his first shutout of the season in blanking what is left of the Ottawa Senators’ roster.

The Arizona Coyotes are not going away. Their overtime win against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday was huge and now has them just one point out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Given where they were coming from a year ago and the injury situation they have dealt with this season it is an impressive accomplishment to still be in this race.

Highlights of the Night

This sequence early in the Washington Capitals-Toronto Maple Leafs game was bonkers.

Connor McDavid recorded his 25th multi-point game of the season in leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders. One of those points was the game-winner in overtime. His 25 multi-point games are the third-most in the NHL this season. He also had a questionable hit on Nick Leddy in the first period that could result in a review from the NHL’s DoPS. Eventful night. [NHL PR]